pets

[Goranothos]

86 Pet without EM or any buffs at all: 404 max hit...agreed

86 Pet summoned with EM7 but without any buffs at all: 527 max hit

I have an EM1 item and some lower level EM items in the bank, but I believe we are going to find that EM4 is the lowest level pet focus that affects the new pets.

[Voragath]

I have an EM1 item and some lower level EM items in the bank, but I believe we are going to find that EM4 is the lowest level pet focus that affects the new pets.

Which is consistent with the spell data according to Lucy/Alla. It has EM 4 as max level 90 but EM 3 as max level 85. And yes, they probably trashed the EM 4 focused level 86 pet since anyone can buy that from the loyalty merchant (i.e. it wouldn't surprise me).

I was in UF beta last year and we didn't get a new data sheet that I know of, at least, it wasn't posted. On the one linked in the library, ignore the funky names and just keep counting. That spreadsheet goes up to 8. In UF we only got 3 new focii and no new pets. If we did get data in the past (not saying we didn't, just saying UF was my first beta), then the lack of new pets and only three new focii could be why we didn't get any in UF.

You won't see huge jumps as you go up one by one in focus as 3% is almost hard to notice if you aren't slapping it on a comparative table. But if you jump 3 or more focii, you'll notice it (10% much more noticeable than 3%).

[Failcon]

Parses need to be done ok the test server honestly. You can't pick random mobs in random zones. Every zone has different base stats for mobs, also each type of mob have diff mitigation and AC which effects the final outcome of the hits. Also why test vs mobs of drastically lower level, giving unrealistic numbers.

[Gnomeland]

That's a pretty significant jump in the EM required (from Servant of Chaos to EM 4, obsoleting six tiers of pet foci).

Even though it's two expansions in-between, this is pretty terrible tuning based on the idea that "everyone would have their loyalty freebie." They just made all group EM from SoD (SoD ... which most of their grouping population are still stuck in due to UF being too hard) worthless and now expect those players to buy the EM 4 from the loyalty vendor for a base focus. Leaves a bad taste in my mouth as it's not just "rewarding" players for loyalty, it's "punishing" them for not being loyal, especially considering the timing of the loyalty vendor vs. expansion release.

Furthermore, you'd think obsoleting six tiers of pet foci means that they could make the base pet a bit better, so that their "loyal customers" could at least see a major increase, but no, they made the jump from 81 to 86 worst for the EM 4 and under folks.

I guess they'll have EM 5 and EM 6 readily available in the HoT starting tiers.

But I have a hard time imagining how they expect mage pets to keep up with the content when they double mob hps and merely nudge up pet DPS. It's like they're turning the lower tier mages into welfare addicts dependent on their "generous" loyalty vendors every expansion.

[Failcon]

Gnomeland ...I want to be an ass and say some rude things. Mages should have EM 4 or better w/o any issue. UF group content was not that hard for a majority of mages. If you are a group Mage then you are going to have to get an actual group, but named mobs in UF group content were fairly easy in the lower tiers. I have many group level mage buddies, and most found ways to even guest raid to get EM 7 which only needed a taskadd. There is an EM item in every teir of HoT, both group and raid.

[Finduilas]

Parses need to be done ok the test server honestly. You can't pick random mobs in random zones. Every zone has different base stats for mobs, also each type of mob have diff mitigation and AC which effects the final outcome of the hits. Also why test vs mobs of drastically lower level, giving unrealistic numbers.

We were just testing unbuffed max hits, you don't need to parse for that. I know it's not a test of dps, I just wanted to know the max hit, that's all.

[Gnomeland]

If that is the case then why were so many mages cheering in mage chat about being able to buy EM 4 from loyalty vendors?

There were two ways to get >EM 4 focus items prior to HoT:

1. Get /taskadd to Tower groups. This is a cheat (in my opinion), since it was applied to people who've never earned the content, but people did what they had to do.

2. Kill UF nameds.

UF nameds are definitely NOT easy, such that some pet in <EM 4 could tank them. You needed a group to do them. That's fine, but back in SoF, approximately two years ago, the devs were still reasonable enough to say that people deserved to have a base focus even if they couldn't camp Beza or Zeka (which were actually relatively easy camps by comparison).

Now that option no longer exists. It is replaced by loyalty vendors, another "meta-game" idea like the market place.

I myself have no issue obtaining focus items, but I am annoyed by devs' insistence that people "keep up" through LOYALTY VENDORS, which are a ridiculous and transparent attempt to coerce people into paying for the game. If EQ is on life support, the devs should be asking more about what they did wrong such that people are constantly leaving the game, instead of trying desperately to hold onto the remainder with RL money schemes (and if you think this is not true, that the two clauses are unrelated, think about why they added the pet focus... If it's really the case that every mage had EM 4 or better, why would they have felt compelled to put it on the loyalty vendor? Come on, this should be obvious.)

But that's aside from the mage-specific issue, which is that the pets are too weak even with EM 4. They have not scaled to the content, especially when you take into account the fact that mob hps have increased so drastically. Everything else is secondary.

[svenalo]

SOF they said that? I don't think so. The EM focuses that got to be easy got added WAY late when they added the faction quests and currency. Before that you had to camp those in the gyros.

[Voragath]

That's a pretty significant jump in the EM required (from Servant of Chaos to EM 4, obsoleting six tiers of pet foci).

No, they obsoleted nothing. Each pet affected by a focus needs a new template for each focus. If they made EM 1-13 work, that's 14 pet templates for the air pet alone! That's 5 mage pets*14 = 70 pets to build and tune for mages. Then there are beast and necro pets. They have to draw the line somewhere. Since 4-6 were made available to groupers in UF, they are just keeping the transition going. They did have EM 5 as the lowest but changed it so the groupers could have some overlap. So they "obsoleted" one less than they originally planned.

Even though it's two expansions in-between, this is pretty terrible tuning based on the idea that "everyone would have their loyalty freebie." They just made all group EM from SoD (SoD ... which most of their grouping population are still stuck in due to UF being too hard) worthless and now expect those players to buy the EM 4 from the loyalty vendor for a base focus. Leaves a bad taste in my mouth as it's not just "rewarding" players for loyalty, it's "punishing" them for not being loyal, especially considering the timing of the loyalty vendor vs. expansion release.

Furthermore, you'd think obsoleting six tiers of pet foci means that they could make the base pet a bit better, so that their "loyal customers" could at least see a major increase, but no, they made the jump from 81 to 86 worst for the EM 4 and under folks.

I guess they'll have EM 5 and EM 6 readily available in the HoT starting tiers.

But I have a hard time imagining how they expect mage pets to keep up with the content when they double mob hps and merely nudge up pet DPS. It's like they're turning the lower tier mages into welfare addicts dependent on their "generous" loyalty vendors every expansion.

Not sure why you are upset. Back at the end of SoF/beginning of SoD they added in that guy in the Ladies of Light tower that allowed you to do separate quests to get the pet focus if you couldn't group the named. Then, SoD put them on the defiant gear sold by the defiant vendors and then you could buy them for outrageous pp. Loyalty crowns are given for free each week whether you want them or not and you don't do anything (no quests or plat farming). If anything, they are just handing the damned focus to you where before you had to work for it. So, you are bitching about a handout?

Also, an EM 4 pet in a full group should do just fine in the first tier of HoT. I wouldn't expect to see them as MT's very often but they should do fine. The level req for Feerrott is 83+ and it should pick up where SoD left off. With more aa's, my pet is actually tanking the trash in Feerrott 2.0 better than he tanked trash in Korafax or Bloodfields. The hp's are higher so it takes longer to kill but he's holding his own better in Feer than Kora.

[Sarenot]

I'd have to agree that at this point in the game, EM4 is the base focus for the new pets. As such, you should not expect a lot of improvement with it over the stock pet.